Team Moldova 2018

Moldova, like any other country in the world, needs innovation. It needs to take advantage of technology in order to succeed. Our FGC team has 5 members, youth from different schools, that are united by a single vision — to make the world a more comfortable, developed and safer place through robotics. We are friends, and this is what defines our team. Most of us developed a passion for robotics about 4 years ago, by joining FIRST LEGO League Competitions, held for the first time in Moldova in 2014, with USAID and Sweden support. We found out that we have many things in common, like loving math, physics and informatics. With robotics and knowledge in STEM we have the power to create things, innovate and go beyond limits. Thanks to FIRST Global we can continue doing what we love the most: to build a better life through STEM.

Cristian Comendant, captain
I would like to become a mechanical or software engineer, and use robotics to innovate in these fields. I am interested in innovations, especially in the IT sphere, and in my free time I read, study and search for news and interesting facts that keep me informed. My other major interests are volunteering and swimming. As I’m young, I can do all my best to convince my peers to attend robotics clubs available across the country. As an ambassador of robotics and STEM in Moldova, I am honored to promote STEM education concept in Moldova, because I know that a lot of young people have great ideas, but have no courage to put it into life.

Andrei Copaci, programmer/ driver
I am 14 years old and I like to create useful and entertaining robots. Since I was a small child, I have been passionate about robotics, more specifically about designing and programming robots. For several years in a row I have participated in many competitions of mathematics and informatics, both national and international. In 2014, for the first time, I participated in FIRST LEGO League Moldova and I was impressed by the amount of knowledge and skills I got to develop. Since then, I have participated in other editions, and our team was champion of FLL Moldova in 2017 and 2018. This offered me the opportunity to travel to Estonia, Romania, Spain, Denmark, and US. It is my second time to attend the FIRST Global Challenge, as I participated at the last year’s Olympics in Washington and I looking forward to coming to Mexico City.

Andrian Bocancea, mechanical engineer
I’m 17 years old and I study at the College of Informatics and Information Technologies. My biggest passion is robotics and programming. I started to study LEGO Mindstorms Robots in 2014 and participated in four seasons of the FIRST LEGO League national competitions; my team won the champion cup two years consecutively, and went to other international competitions. Also, in 2017 I became a member of the Moldavan FGC team, and traveled to Washington DC to represent my country. I’m passionate about robotics, I see myself in the FGC team as an Engineer-Constructor, solving the mechanical issues and building the shape of a great robot. As the ambassador of robotics and STEM in Moldova, I’m trying to share STEM concepts to friends and the public, and improve the technological knowledge level of our country. Our mission is to find new ideas and build awareness of STEM education to the entire society.

Mihai Moglan, Spokesperson/ mechanical engineer
I am interested in studying physics, mathematics, and informatics because I find them compelling and those subjects are essential for my future job. My personal hero is Dennis Ritchie, who created the C language and who is the father of the UNIX operating system. In my spare time I am learning and playing with Arduino. Also, I am teaching small children robotics with LEGO Mindstorms EV3 and LEGO WeDo 2.0. The robotics industry is growing rapidly; it obviously has a bright future and one of my biggest desires is being part of that awesome future. I would like to become a software engineer and work in the robotics sphere. Because the topic of this year’s FIRST Global Challenge is “energy impact”, I have something to say about the energy situation in our country: I would like to see nuclear power plants in the Republic of Moldova, as it is considered to be the energy source of the future. Nuclear power reactors are cost-effective and produce a lot of energy from a small quantity of fuel.

Mihalache Nicolae, programmer/ driver
I’m passionate about robotics and I am interested in the way it works and the number of tasks you can do with robotics. By participating in FIRST Global we find creative and unique ways to solve given tasks. In my spare time I like going to the gym to maintain a healthy body. I also like to practice and improve my coding skills. One of my favorite topics is cryptocurrency. I admire the amount of work and passion a group of skilled developers with a lot of creativity have acquired in this area. One of my best traits is the fact that I can manage my time very well, which makes me unique to most of today’s teens.


Energy Situation

Since the Republic of Moldova does not have its own fossil fuel reserves, except for the insignificant quantities of gas, oil and lignite in the southern part of the republic, it is totally dependent on external energy resources. Hydroelectric plants in Dubăsari and Costeşti produce no more than one percent of the country’s electricity consumption. So 100% of natural gas and 80% of electricity is being imported from other countries, this issue makes our country energetical dependent.

The most important source in our country is biomass, the most viable and affordable renewable energy source in the Republic of Moldova. It could provide annually about 22% of the total energy resources needed in the country.

 



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